In the HuffPo piece, Baldwin who had previous and rather eloquently pointed out Quinn’s untrustworthy, duplicitous and self serving nature and overall problematic character went a step further today dissecting with precision the hollow polluted soul of a blatant political opportunist in Christine Quinn. While I heartily recommend a full reading of Baldwin’s piece, because so much is notable, his opening is worthy of review:

“How do I convey this without offending the gay community, or women who are supportive of more women in politics, or those who believe that Michael Bloomberg was a great mayor for New York? It may be impossible, but here goes.

Christine Quinn is not qualified to be mayor of New York.

Quinn basically had a deal with Bloomberg that he would support her and, as such, is clearly presenting herself now as pro-business, while walking and talking her way across the five boroughs as a populist.”

As a New Yorker by birth who has had ups and downs in this metropolis, I regard Alec Baldwin’s words herein as gospel. Forget the caricature of the man stalked on the streets of this city by paparazzi. He gets it. Baldwin knows what New York City needs:

As the pendulum inevitably swings again, New York needs a mayor who is three things: one who truly possesses middle class values (whether they be middle class or not), one who is uncompromising in their integrity and one who can genuinely stoke the ineffable spirit that defines New York. A spirit of diversity that says come as you are. A spirit of community that says all for one and one for all, yet encouraging an opinionated, muscular individuality. A great New Yorker once told me “If you are truly one in a million, there are seven other people like you in this town. You can form a club.”

Truth told, it is REAL New Yorkers like Baldwin, Donny Moss, Cynthia Nixon, Tom Allon (who dropped out of the mayors race today) who have and continue to expand the character of the debate by highlighting issues that matter most to New Yorkers and in many cases exposing Quinn for the political charlatan that she is, who are truly heroic.

QUINN’S “WALK-and-’TAWK’” TOUR OF THE FIVE BOROUGHS

In the clearly rehearsed and scripted announcement and roll out of her candidacy which can be seen above, the Glen Gove, Long Island product chose to hammer it home with an over emphasis on the slang pronunciation of ‘talk’ as ‘TAWK’. It simply rubbed me the wrong way. The more I reflected on this not so subtle con, the more I found it offensive, especially because it did not reflect her true style of speaking. All I could think was that the hustle of the Outer Boroughs is on like Donkey Kong in this walking and talking tour of the city (contrived perhaps to mimic Hillary Clinton’s listening tour of the Empire State before running for Senator); and that this elitist posing as a populist was willing to do anything she could to somehow illustrate that she was just like us, or at least the caricature of us that she and others like her have formed. We aren’t buying it.

As a citizen of New York City who grew up in the Outer Boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn and who was teased mercilessly during my freshmen year of college at Boston University for my “funny accent” – some called me ‘Brooklyn’ even though I spent more of my life in Queens – I took offense at Christine Quinn’s clear attempt to trade on a caricature or cliché of the manner those of us from the Outer Boroughs speak and sound and pronounce the word ‘talk’.

Does NYC really want a leader who thinks she needs to dumb down and disparage us in order to appeal to us? Quinn has in effect acknowledged that she sees REAL New Yorkers, especially those of us in the Outer Boroughs outside Manhattan Society’s cocktail circuit as lesser, hence the basis for this type of low ball appeal. This is not how she “TALKS” but this is yet more proof of the character of a political charlatan; someone trying so hard to seem like she is just like us but who is so clearly not. She even felt the need to get rid of her METS Cap and become a Yankees fan to chase votes in the Bronx. How much of a ‘REAL’ New Yorker can Quinn truly be with maneuvers like that? REAL New Yorkers who care about the Future of New York City do not deserve this kind of cheap hustle from a political chameleon.

DOES QUINN’S CHOICE OF CAP FOREBODE OF A CAMPAIGN COMING UNDONE?

Real New Yorker’s who have not already dismissed Christine Quinn as a political charlatan for the path to City Hall she has attempted to carve with a combination of identity politics and appeasement of crony capitalist developers, may yet take a pause, given some recent headlines; including those which seem nonsensical on the surface but illustrate the lack of core values or beliefs of the Speaker of the City Council.

QUINN ABANDONS UNDERDOGS, STANDS WITH THE OVER-DOGS: Throws METS Under the Bus for Yankees & Citizens Under the Bus For Developers

“I have to admit it’s been hard to be a Mets fan during the past 10, 15 years,” said Tom Allon, the Liberal Party nominee. “I’ve always liked the underdogs, and that’s why the Mets appealed to me.” - Tom Allon, 2013 NYC Mayoral Candidate

QUEENS DEMOCRATIC MACHINE: Did Quinn Abandon Mets Because She Has Support of Queens Democratic Machine in the Bag?

Documentary film maker Donny Moss has exposed how Quinn’s ties to the Queens Democratic machine caused her to stand against animal rights. So therefore, I must think that Quinn is so confident of her ability to win Queens; that the Queens Democratic machine will reward her for stand against animal rights protecting the horse drawn carriage industry in the face of irrefutable evidence, outlined in the documentary film ‘Blinders’, illustrating that these carriage rides are out dated and abusive to the horses as well as an urban danger.

Is there something more to Quinn’s switch than meets the eye? Perhaps. But to those who have watched Quinn, the switch should come as no surprise given that Quinn has filled her slush funds currying favor in this town with the “over-dogs” and the overlords in New York City as the expense of society’s underdogs, human and animal rights and the middle class.

CHRIS QUINN TO BE LIKE BILL BUCKNER

The Yankees are one of the preeminent franchises in all of professional sports without a doubt. Nevertheless, REAL New Yorkers, including those like Tom Allon cheer for the underdog, don’t abandon their loyalty to a team simply because of a bad run or because they think there may be a few more Yankee fans who could vote for them. This is not something that Rangers, Knicks or Mets fans who have not had much to cheer about lately would regard lightly. But given Quinn’s rejection of the METS, I would gather many a METS fan, including this one, will cheer madly, if Quinn should stumble badly in the Democratic primary, much like we did when the ball went through Buckner’s legs to help lead the METS to victory over the Red Sox in the 1986 World Series. Quinn may come to rue the day she discarded the METS.

NYC DEVELOPERS: “PUT LIPSTICK ON A PIG”

Quinn seems to be nothing more than ‘a soul less shape-shifting political opportunist’ whose belief system is contrived on the fly. She has abandoned reason, her constituents, the working class and other Real New Yorkers and yes contributed to the continued abuse of horses, the collapse of St. Vincent’s Hospital, all to stand with Crony Capitalist pigs who allow this political hack to feed at the trough. Anyone who says that “you can’t put lipstick on a pig”, surely never watched Christine Quinn put on her makeup before work, a public appearance or a meeting with her enablers.

The voters of Queens need to remind Ms. Quinn that we don’t need fair weather friends, fans or leaders. We must Vote Quinn Out.

GUARDIAN ASKS: Why do New York Liberals Support Conservative Quinn? But Fact Is: REAL New Yorkers in Chelsea & NYC Outer Boroughs Don’t…Increasingly

The mainstream media continues to gloss over the growing resistance to Quinn’s candidacy which has metastasized into a grassroots citywide campaign to Defeat Christine Quinn. Quinn faces constituent abandonment over ignoring issues relevant to the citizens in her own district of Chelsea, the LGBT Community in general, many who formerly or at one time supported Quinn’s political rise as well as the working middle class in the Outer Boroughs of New York City. For example, see:

SO HOW MUCH OF A ‘REAL’ NEW YORKER IS QUINN REALLY?

If you emigrated to New York City five minutes ago with no real sense of the true history of this city but identify as gay, consider yourself a bon vivant, global jet setter, or perhaps even have a trust fund or wealthy parents, and maybe even have a preference for partying in the meatpacking district then maybe you think its super cool that Quinn may become the first openly gay female Mayor of New York City. Maybe you will not investigate her record beyond the symbolism of her candidacy.

Maybe also you see absolutely nothing wrong with the over development of cookie cutter luxury condo towers which have sprouted up across the metropolis in neighborhood’s extracted of their essential character. What this city once looked like or that it was hospitable to artists, the working middle class and intellectuals is not relevant to you. After all this is becoming your New York, a great place to party as long as you can find and high rise digs in the sky with a view to entertain. If so then you perhaps share a commonalty of interest with Bill Rudin, Christine Quinn and Senator Tom Duane, and the other societal elites who enabled them on the City Planning Commission. Maybe it does not bother you that this crowd has no long term economic plan beyond turning New York City into some hollow elitist utopia of high rise luxury condos in prolific glass towers in neighborhood’s without character so that the Rudin Real Estate family and their ilk can get more rental income off of property once zoned for community use: parks, schools, hospitals and the like. Maybe you have no use for them. You are young, single, have no children or do not intend to have to build a meaningful life or need to hustle for survival any longer.

That New York has become a city with sky rocketing real estate prices, a stock market soaring to historical highs with a plummeting middle class is perhaps also not a concern to you. While this is all happening a once proud middle class of this city collapses all around you. Citizens in the outer boroughs are increasingly becoming priced out as their income collapses and property values increase. As a result they are pushed further aware from the bustling core of this city. And yet your lack of concern for anything other than her ‘identity politics’, the veil which masks her corruption, is exactly what Christine Quinn is counting on: your vote and the vote of more folks like you. No, I do not want you to leave. You have every right to be here. I just want you to consider the Future of New York more thoughtfully than have Quinn and her sponsors.

BUT, rest assured that Christine Quinn won’t get my vote or the vote of any thoughtful New Yorker who understands that this city can be more than the piggy bank of a few insiders who have bought as their puppet, an unqualified political hack with a simplistic and narrow vision for the future of this great city that is centered around her own self enrichment.

NYC’S EPICENTER IS IN THE HEART OF ITS CITIZENS: It Does Not Take the ‘King of Corona’ to See that a Five Borough Vision of New York City Eludes Long Island Girl Christine Quinn

I am what some might refer to as a so called REAL New Yorker. I grew up in Queens and Brooklyn and now live in Manhattan, something I long aspired to but have questioned the necessity of living in this borough in recent years, given the escalating cost of housing here. My parents made the move to Manhattan before leaving to retire in the warmth of Florida. My dream of the ‘Bright Lights Big City’ may have been different than that of Jay McInerney’s character in the book of the same name but it was a dream nonetheless. Like it is for many, Manhattan remains a concept or an idea as much as anything else.

Yet, I am ‘B&T’ or bridge and tunnel all the way; and there is simply nothing getting around that fact or that the basis for my dreams was formed in middle and working class neighborhoods in the Outer Boroughs of New York City. I have never forgotten who I am, where I came from, nor am I deaf to the dreams of those who remained from whence I came. That includes my own family, friends and fellow citizens who pursue their dreams still in those places, even if their success in life, in many cases, has often well eclipsed mine on many levels. Even so, since my life is not over, maybe even the Bronx and Staten Island might still be in my future. Maybe it is even my destiny to be the five borough citizen. Who knows? But if I have learned anything it is that the soul of New York City is well outside Times Square, Grand Central Station (Terminal) or City Hall. The epicenter of New York City is in the hearts of its citizens.

But it was there at P.S. 14 where it was “me and Julio down by the school yard” trying to figure out how to impress Barbara Alman, the first girl that truly caught my eye. I got butterflies in my stomach just looking at her. I could barely utter a coherent phrase to illustrate a more than passing interest in her, but some of my female classmate friends saw it clearly and often teased me about it. Those were the days, when the biggest challenge in life was to figure out if I was going to say hello to Barbara or something more.

I have memories and I still have friends and family who grew up live in the ‘Outer Boroughs’, the ones that Manhattan political elites only realize exist after a natural disaster or when they seek citywide elective office. So yes, though I may live in Manhattan currently, my soul is ‘Bridge & Tunnel’. Words once used to disparage people of my ilk are now, for me, a source of pride. When I found work in Manhattan and landed my first legal job in New York City at Weil, Gotshal & Manges on Fifth Avenue, I can recall some of those I first associated with in Manhattan, who perhaps saw themselves as somewhat higher on the human food chain, snidely refer to those from the outer boroughs as ‘B&T’. I got past some of my friends in college at Boston University calling me ’Brooklyn’ by improving my diction, getting higher grades than they did and then gaining acceptance to the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Long before Joey from friends made “How you doin” famous for me that simple phrase got me snickers in some circles when I spoke, including from a young girl from the Town of Yardley in Bucks County, Pennsylvania who later became my college girlfriend. I would be lying, however, if I did not say it irked me when I overheard ‘young urban professionals’ or Manhattanites at happy hours at fancy bars and restaurants in Manhattan, denigrate the people on the other side of the bridges and tunnels leading to Manhattan. When I reminded them, in my Brooks Brother suit (the one my mom bought for me) that I was from Queens and Brooklyn too, they would quickly say ” but you are different.” Ironically today on the other side of Manhattan’s bridges & tunnels you find trust fund kids and wealthy entrepreneurs and folks I knew who never received the education I did and never emigrated to Manhattan became millionaires on their own. Some even have more than those who made it in Manhattan. And no, it is not because they or their families were “all mobbed up.”

In my teens, my mom moved us to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn where I literally became a man. It was was the first place I laid down with a woman, got mugged, got my ass kicked and put myself on a path to realize my dreams or at least some of them. After all the clock has not yet run out on my life. OK, I must confess, living in Brooklyn in the hey day of Saturday Night Fever, I never owned a Members Only jacket. Instead fashion was nary a concern, because I was hoisting iron at Bath Beach Bodybuilding with some of my dorky friends, some of whom walked around full time as if they were on stage doing a lat spread. If any of you are reading this I hope you crack up but you know it is true! Leaving the gym, I was often dressed in engineer boots and Lee Jeans. And if you know Bensonhurst, you would know I stuck out like a sore thumb. I was ok that I never totally fit in. But then again that is what we wore to school in Queens at I.S. 61 and later at John Bowne in Queens and I spent more time listening to Rock and even got a job at Harry M. Stevens, the concessionaire at Madison Square Garden, where I was able to work rock concerts in the 70’s. I liked the movie Saturday Night Fever but starting out in Queens, for me, people like that were characters. That is until my first day at Sheepshead Bay High School where I saw folks dressed like Tony Manero and his friends in my class.

Furthermore, if Quinn hopes to have the Queens Democratic Machine rig the vote for her maybe she can win Queens but I believe that if the voters Queens have their say, Christine Quinn will be repudiated at the ballot box. Quinn’s best hope is to have her campaign and the mainstream media lure voters into thinking that the Mayoralty is already the bag for her. It is not. Once the voters realize it is not, Quinn’s candidacy will implode like a house of cards. All politics is local and the Democrats in Chelsea, at least those who participate and watch what leaders actually do, have already walked away from Christine Quinn. The campaign to Defeat Christine Quinn is growing at the grassroots level across this city, among Democrats and within the LGBT Community. Quinn’s ‘identity politics’ are not a good enough reason to vote for her. That should tell any Democrat paying attention to the truth of what Christine Quinn represents. They know Quinn does not represent the working men and women of New York City. Fact is that this ought to and just might be the “Twilight of the Elite Christine Quinn” if the media campaign to wash over her record does not fool a majority of voters.

DOES QUINN HOPE TO BE THE WIZARD OF OZ?

Voters in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx and Staten Island as well as the enlightened in Manhattan will come to realize, if they have not already, that Christine Quinn is the plutocracy’s wind up toy. But, especially, if you live along the LIE, the BQE or take the MTA into the city or near the city for work, you will recognize that via Bloomberg and Quinn Manhattan is becoming more like the Emerald City in the fictional Land of OZ, a place so far out of reach for the forgotten working men and women who grew up in New York City and more an urban playgroundfor the global jet setting elite only ; a place with a skyrocketing real estate and stock market with a plummeting middle class.

THE FUTURE OF NEW YORK CITY – QUINN & RUDIN’S LIMITED VISION

New York City was once to the rest of the world, a beacon of urban possibility, a place of dreams for artists and the iconoclastic; a place where Governor Mario Cuomo, also a product of Jamaica, Queens,challenged the vision of elites who were looking past the plight of the every man and woman in this country. Cuomo cut his teeth at the local level – representing “The Corona Fighting 69″ and then at the national level in a historic speech at the 1984 Democratic National Convention challenging Ronald Reagan’s vision of America as a “Shining City on the Hill”. In his speech, Cuomo outlined how America had become “Tale of Two Cities” illustrating in vivid detail the emergence of a less compassionate society, the plight of the increasingly forgotten and eroding middle class and vulnerability of the elderly, the sick and the poor. Cuomo referenced the folks behind the Norman Rockwell like paintings of America that all too often some politicians seek to craft at election time to brush over the uncomfortable externalities of their policy. Now our city is becoming as empty and soul less as Hollywood on the Hudson and the words of Mario Cuomo’s historic speech in 1984 even more relevant today then they were back then.

Am I missing something? Do Rudin and Quinn have any grander vision for the future of New York? Or is all that they can imagine for the future of this once proud metropolis is that its citizens should be working wage slave servants to those they hope come to populate the similar glass high rises that they continue to build? Is the only vision you have for New Yorker’s that they should serve the food and drinks, clean the apartments and drive the limousines in this New- New York? Have certain Manhattan elites forgotten the true import of New York City’s rich history, the lessons of Jane Jacobs and the ‘Future of New York’ she imagined – a place of hope and expectation? I wonder about this because all they seem able to imagine is condo’s for the global elite while they rip apart the ties that bind our community of citizens. We all need to go on a Jane Jacobs Walk if we want to avoid the complete and total cultural collapse of our metropolis and avoid a “Dark Age Ahead.”

Christine Quinn is unacceptable. I hope and expect that the chorus will be amplified my fellow citizens in that regard in the months ahead. Quinn’s ‘identity politics’ must lose at the polls if we are to preserve New York as a place of hope and expectation for future generations.

1. St. Vincent’s Hospital – Epicenter of AIDS CrisisSt. Vincent’s Hospital | AIDS Memorial Park: St. Vincent’s Hospital did not turn its back on the LGBT Community during the AIDS Crisis, quite the opposite in fact. St. Vincent’s was the epicenter of the AIDS Crisis. I am pretty sure that the entity’s compassionate policies exemplified for its care for those that nobody else would care for, destroyed its balance sheet. Yet, the humanity of the institution was not reciprocated by the liberal elites from Boss Quinn to Bette Midler of New York Restoration Project, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell et al etc. Perhaps they would rather have a luxury condo and toast in restoring the Continental Baths at the Ansonia or Studio 54 than fighting for a Catholic Hospital. You see, it is truly important to put in the Mayor’s Mansion, a woman who enables the corruption of NYC Insiders in backroom deals. Enabling her sponsor: Bill Rudin of the ABNY – Association For A Better New York to build luxury condos over the corpse of a Landmark medical treatment facility is critical, because its not like we have enough of them already in this town. The physicians, nurses and staff were there for the West Village Community during the AIDS Epidemic but the politically corrupt, grandstanding and annoyingly verbose, self serving and pontificating windbag - Tom Duane and his protege Christine Quinn turned their back on St. Vincent’s in its hour of need. History will show that those running St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center made a huge mistake in letting in the vultures: Rudin Management Company, Inc. For years leading up to its 2010 closing, St. Vincent’s was the target of a controversial billion-dollar luxury condo conversion plan by the Rudin real estate dynasty. Quinn’s Sponsor, Crony Capitalist Vulture Bill Rudin long had plans to develop Luxury Condo’s on the landmark site of the 160 year old hospital and chapel. With the assistance of Speaker Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane and a media campaign hatched and waged by societal elites in the shadows of society, the true vampires pulled the strings to enable Quinn’s sponsors: the Rudin clan to shutter a historic humanitarian medical institution and acquire for pennies on the dollar a landmark property of the 160 year old medical treatment facility and leaving the Lower West Side of Manhattan without a trauma hospital. Maybe someone should ask Bill Rudin who leads the Association For a Better New York whether more luxury condos for celebrities is preferable for a better New York than a critical hospital to treat its citizens in a vulnerable part of Manhattan.

On Toasting the Elite Crony Capitalists: Oh yes, I am sure we will have a nice little Memorial and a cute fundraiser or cocktail party hosted by the Rudin’s, Quinn and all their elite friends but it will not make up for the elimination of this critical and vital NY institution.

“I AM COUNTESS DRACULA. I COME TO SUCK THE BLOOD & THE LIFE OUT OF YOUR CITY”

THINK DIFFERENT – examine all the political machinations in the media with suspicion. Everything is not always what it seems.

NY Magazine placed the Vampire of the City – Speaker of the New York City Council: Christine Quinn on its cover this week. Ironically enough, Quinn was styled and posed to look like a cast member from one of the multitude of vampire television series that have been all the rage in recent years. She could have been Eddie Munster’s sister. While NY Magazine gave her what amounts to an editorial puff piece, on the cover, while nobody will ever mistake her for Ashley Greene from the Twilight series, Christine Quinn looked very much like the daughter of Count Dracula or CoUNTess Dracula (as noted by the NY Post) The only thing missing were fangs and bats swirling overhead.

The New York Post followed this week mocking the NY Magazine cover, referring to ”Chris Quinn’s vamping it up” and then made reference to her as “MAYOR DRACULA”.

QUINN’S BIZARRE ROLL OUT: Identity Politics Trap?

Think about what is going on here. It crystallized for me after the NY Post allusion to her as Mayor Dracula. While her fangs were not exposed and no bats were flying over head in the cover image, you had to wonder whether Quinn was going after the Twilight or goth vote or whether there was in fact something else to this.

It is a bizarre roll out for sure. But, Quinn is a master of identity politics. She and her team are not unsophisticated nor were they duped. Team Quinn has been preparing for this moment for several years. Quinn is trying to ‘nationalize’ her campaign and make it a cause celeb much like her lobbyist filled high profile power wedding, as her support locally erodes among the non-elite ordinary citizens of Gotham City. The master of identity politics needs the symbolism of being female and gay to deflect from a career of enabling crony capitalists who have ripped off the city of New York. So, they have courted national women’s organizations, feminine political leaders and national and regional LGBT leadership including: the Empire State Pride Agenda, Emily’s List et al etc. to support her candidacy because she is vulnerable in her own local community for compromising the LGBT community, women and turning her back on the very real concerns of middle class citizens.

So what is going on here you ask?

PLANTING SEEDS TO IGNITE A BACKLASH?

QUINN’S NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR MAYOR: Quinn needs a national profile for her local race.

Anti-Quinn forces are being set up and this includes those in the Democratic Party as well as her potential Republican opponents. The Quinn political machine needs a crisis or an attack on her character to paint it as an assault on women or the LGBT Community to create a nationwide backlash. That will cause financial contributions pour in from outside NYC from all across this country to support the ‘victim’ who is striving to be the first female Mayor of New York City as well as the first openly gay mayor of New York City. Then her allies in the mainstream media will have their perfect narrative to install the puppet of cronyism. Ed Koch is proof we have already had a closeted one but that is besides the point. Because of Quinn he is not even dead but had a bridge already named after him (not that anyone will ever call the Queensboro Bridge – the Ed Koch Bridge). The people working for her are straight up political gangsters who know exactly what they are doing. If you need further evidence the NY Times reports: As Election Nears, Release of Quinn Memoir Does, Too. The agenda as outlined by Quinn’s editor:

“Ms. Quinn’s editor has said he expects the book to attract a national audience, with women and gay men a particular focus. . . Becoming the first female and first gay mayor of New York City are considered significant assets of her campaign.”

The Art of War is deception and timing. With Quinn nothing is by accident. Remember always: gangsters, political gangsters is who and what they are. To charges of cronyism, lack of character and integrity along with an anti-democratic agenda the Quinn campaign will remind voters:

Christine Quinn is a woman

Christine Quinn is a Lesbian (Gay)

Christine Quinn is married to her partner and supports Gay Marriage

Christine Quinn aspires to be the first openly Gay Female Mayor of New York City

This is the veil which will be used to cloud her corruption and anti-democratic agenda, which apparently should be of little or no concern to New York voters. In answer to her eroding support among your own defrauded constituents Quinn hopes to raise money from people who have not been impacted by her policies, outside her district and outside New York City who have no comprehension of your agenda but they just will identify with your identity in order to put someone with your identity in office.

It appears that New York Magazine and the NY Post got it exactly right – you are the Vampire of NYC. That is your true identity; a fangless social predator.

Furthermore, my suspicion is that Quinn’s handlers are hoping to ignite or attract vitriolic commentary against her; language that goes over the line just enough so that Quinn can pose as a victim of a “Sexist Media Campaign” against women and gays. She can frame all of her opponents as bigots, homophobic or angry leftist reactionaries who are hesitant if not afraid of handing over the keys to New York City to the first openly gay female mayor. This is her way to provide cover for her Crony Capitalist Backdoor deals with societal elites which are the primary source of her vulnerability with New Yorks democratic voters, including defrauded constituents in her own City Council District 3. Otherwise why else would ‘A Democratic Club in Chelsea Continue its War on Christine Quinn’ but to insure that the corrupt political phony does not become the Mayor of New York City? Quinn is losing appeal locally so she needs a national agenda.

Tom Allon, CEO of Manhattan Media, the now Republican candidate for Mayor, one who you assume might go easy on the Rudin’s and their slimy crony capitalist insider deals, slammed Christine Quinn for her backroom deal with Bill Rudin that led to the closure of St. Vincent’s Hospital and created a significant financial windfall for the Rudin family who just happen to be Quinn’s principal sponsors.

Tom Allon: Quinn & Rudin Screw the Community

Many of my own heroes in life are women. But as proof that I am human and far from perfect, even I was even tempted say she looked like COUNT Dracula (minus the ‘O’). This is precisely what Quinn and her handlers need and want to fuel her campaign. Truth is that until I began to do my research on Quinn I was ambivalent and actually thought a female Mayor would be a good idea but the Rudin deal for St. Vincent’s was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. You do not have to go too far down the rabbit hole to know that deal stinks and they hope that New Yorkers will just look the other way at this criminal transfer if they simply put up a memorial: St. Vincents/AIDS Memorial Park and place of a few celebrities in Rudin Family Blood Condos

Quinn is deeply corrupt and an enemy of democracy and the democratic process. Don’t ever lose sight of that. Understand that identity politics and trading on her status as a gay female victim will allow her handlers to raise money for her nationally. Quinn will run a national campaign for a local office.

QUID PRO QUINN = NOT QUALIFIED TO BE MAYOR OF NYC

New Yorkers will see Quinn’s fangs if they put this bloodsucker and Crony Capitalist enabler in Gracie Mansion for Christine is more personally ambitious than she is a capable or visionary leader. Quinn has no vision or meaningful record of accomplishment in her life, political or otherwise, that would serve as a legitimate credential qualifying her to lead the greatest city in the world.

Ms. Quinn’s tenure as Speaker of the City Council illustrates and perhaps has only confirmed that she does not have the ethics, character, integrity or temperament to be the proverbial leader of New York City. Quinn has a career profile representing skill in opportunistic political graft, personal greed and pure identity politics. Simply being a gay elitist does not make Quinn a visionary of any kind. NYC needs a real Chief Executive, not a corrupt, unfit and unqualified political hack consumed with her own personal enrichment. Simply put Quid Pro Quinn’s identity politics undermine democracy and help mask, camouflage and provide cover for her her true anti-progressive and anti-democratic agenda.

Should New Yorkers be foolish enough to elevate this con-woman to the Mayoralty, it will take all of about 5 minutes before most New Yorkers wish Mike Bloomberg was serving his fourth term. Christine Quinn is not Bloomberg’s fourth term but something far worse. While I voted for Bloomberg three times, he has an independent voice and has made many decisions many which I have agreed with and others which I have disagreed with on principle. Christine Quinn on the other hand seems to operate with a moral compass that always points to self interest. Quinn has illustrated a willingness to sell out communities of average folks for an extra plate of macaroni. Lobbyists moved into her Chelsea apartment building. Real Estate families like the Rudin Management clan have bought her for less than a broker’s commission on a Chelsea Micro-Studio apartment. New Yorkers need to examine this woman’s record and insure that this in fact the ‘twilight of this particular elite’. We do not need any New Adventures for the Old Christine [Quinn]

1. St. Vincent’s Hospital – Epicenter of AIDS CrisisSt. Vincent’s Hospital | AIDS Memorial Park: St. Vincent’s Hospital did not turn its back on the LGBT Community during the AIDS Crisis, quite the opposite in fact. St. Vincent’s was the epicenter of the AIDS Crisis. I am pretty sure that the entity’s compassionate policies exemplified for its care for those that nobody else would care for, destroyed its balance sheet. Yet, the humanity of the institution was not reciprocated by the liberal elites from Boss Quinn to Bette Midler of New York Restoration Project, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Susan Sarandon, Rosie O’Donnell et al etc. Perhaps they would rather have a luxury condo and toast in restoring the Continental Baths at the Ansonia or Studio 54 than fighting for a Catholic Hospital. You see, it is truly important to put in the Mayor’s Mansion, a woman who enables the corruption of NYC Insiders in backroom deals. Enabling her sponsor: Bill Rudin of the ABNY – Association For A Better New York to build luxury condos over the corpse of a Landmark medical treatment facility is critical, because its not like we have enough of them already in this town. The physicians, nurses and staff were there for the West Village Community during the AIDS Epidemic but the politically corrupt, grandstanding and annoyingly verbose, self serving and pontificating windbag - Tom Duane and his protege Christine Quinn turned their back on St. Vincent’s in its hour of need. History will show that those running St. Vincent’s Catholic Medical Center made a huge mistake in letting in the vultures: Rudin Management Company, Inc. For years leading up to its 2010 closing, St. Vincent’s was the target of a controversial billion-dollar luxury condo conversion plan by the Rudin real estate dynasty. Quinn’s Sponsor, Crony Capitalist Vulture Bill Rudin long had plans to develop Luxury Condo’s on the landmark site of the 160 year old hospital and chapel. With the assistance of Speaker Quinn, State Senator Tom Duane and a media campaign hatched and waged by societal elites in the shadows of society, the true vampires pulled the strings to enable Quinn’s sponsors: the Rudin clan to shutter a historic humanitarian medical institution and acquire for pennies on the dollar a landmark property of the 160 year old medical treatment facility and leaving the Lower West Side of Manhattan without a trauma hospital. Maybe someone should ask Bill Rudin who leads the Association For a Better New York whether more luxury condos for celebrities is preferable for a better New York than a critical hospital to treat its citizens in a vulnerable part of Manhattan.

On Toasting the Elite Crony Capitalists: Oh yes, I am sure we will have a nice little Memorial and a cute fundraiser or cocktail party hosted by the Rudin’s, Quinn and all their elite friends but it will not make up for the elimination of this critical and vital NY institution.

SOCIETAL SAFETY: Will Come From Greater Peace, Understanding & Love

The ‘Methodical Massacre’ at Sandy Hook Elementary School has struck a chord deeply within the American psyche about the state of our nation. Many Americans, across a wide spectrum or demographic groups, including with those who are far removed from the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Perhaps, it is because beyond the loss of so many precious young lives in Connecticut, the gruesome details of Adam Lanza’s premeditated attack on school children and teachers illustrates how still vulnerable still are many Americans to random acts of violence by our fellow citizens; citizens in many cases who operate in the shadows of American life – even in sheltered communities, either suffering from diagnosed or un-diagnosed mental illness or assorted other psychopathic or sociopathic personality disorders and for whom quite often there is also a lack of proper treatment or supervision. By the time we learn of the true danger to society of these ‘ticking time bombs’, often it is too late.

In a piece entitled, “I am Adam Lanza’s Mother”, another mother explains the frightening scenario that perhaps many mothers across America are facing in the attempt to control mentally ill children who may some day pose a risk to the rest of us:

“No one wants to send a 13-year old genius who loves Harry Potter and his snuggle animal collection to jail. But our society, with its stigma on mental illness and its broken healthcare system, does not provide us with other options. Then another tortured soul shoots up a fast food restaurant. A mall. A kindergarten classroom. And we wring our hands and say, “Something must be done.”

I agree that something must be done. It’s time for a meaningful, nation-wide conversation about mental health. That’s the only way our nation can ever truly heal.”

We owe it to those families who lost their children as well as the family and friends of Victoria Soto, a heroic young teacher, who along with several other teachers and educational professionals died shielding their students from certain death, not to tarnish the legacy of these heroic individuals or cause their survivors to suffer the further indignity of having to listen to any of us pontificate platitudes or offer faux solutions that provide political cover but not meaningful change. We need to evolve beyond entrenched political positions whether they take the form of NRA sloganeering or anti-NRA campaigns and ‘put reason back in America’s gun debate’. Otherwise we do a disservice to those who died, those who survive them and the future generations we place at risk. The true lunacy beyond the acts of maniacal gunman Adam Lanza in Connecticut is that what happened at Sandy Hook can happen anywhere at almost any time in America. That is what is truly horrifying.

SOCIETAL BREAKDOWN: FUELING MORE LOVING SPREES vs. KILLING SPREES

What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me— nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

We kill too much in America. Too many Americans die as a byproduct of ‘random acts of violence’. But are they truly so random given our present societal values, discourse, understanding and treatment of mental illness? The statistics bear out that more Americans are killed from the use of handguns than any other civilized country on the planet. How do we get America to put down the guns? Surely, we need more loving sprees vs. killing sprees. It is really that simple and yet it is still even more complex to get there. And I do not say that to make light of the situation or to be humorous.

Despite the nobility, the reason, the grace, and the beauty of man, much like Hamlet, I too cannot be delighted. The real question is how do we prevent more of our citizens from going on killing sprees? Few reasonable people would argue that we need to love more and kill less. That is a fact but how do we create or facilitate that reality? Is gun control the magic bullet or is it merely one component of a complex and multi-pronged societal solution to the increasing violence, disconnect and breakdown in civil society? How do we stop other mass murderers like Adam Lanza from emerging at the wrong time from the confines of America’s wealthiest suburban communities? How many other ticking time bombs are out there?

If we choose to recognize and accept that that the solution to preventing more massacres of our young and innocent like that at Newtown Elementary School, is a complex multifaceted one, then ultimately that will be the beginning to fortifying our society and enhancing the security of our citizens. There is no doubt that once we decide to grasp the breadth and complexity of the problem, it will be an exhaustive process to come up with the proper formula or prescription for the proper treatment of certain societal ills which undermine our security.

We may not get it right immediately but we ought to never stop trying. In my estimation, thoughtful restrictions on gun ownership, use and display are merely one component of the solution to secure the safety of many Americans who are actually right now quite vulnerable to the kind of tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. We owe the victims and their families an earnest dialogue on this issue that leads to thoughtful and creative solutions on several fronts.

GUN CONTROL: Is Not the Only Answer

Cause it’s a bittersweet symphony, this life
Trying to make ends meet
Trying to find some money then you die
I’ll take you down the only road I’ve ever been down
You know the one that takes you to the places
where all the veins meet yeah

You know I can’t change, I can’t change
I can’t change, I can’t change
But I’m here in my mind
I am here in my mind
And I’m a million different people
from one day to the next
I can’t change my mind
No, no, no, no, no

I do not own a gun. I do not want a gun. Yes, perhaps maybe I want to shoot one in a controlled environment with proper training and supervision at a private gun range or rifle range. I had the experience of doing so at Summer Camp on Cape Cod back in the 1970’s even though I was actually quite a terrible shot. Archery on their other hand was more my thing, perhaps because the simple bow and arrow conjured up more romantic ideas of a bygone era. I diverge. Truth is that I recognize that even if I owned a gun, chances are it might prove to be a greater danger to me than to anyone else.

The ‘Methodical Massacre’ at Sandy Hook Elementary School in all of its gruesome, disturbing detail illustrates how still vulnerable are wide segments of society to random acts of violence of private citizens who become unhinged in the quiet privacy of their suburban homes. I would love to believe that tighter gun control laws alone would make us all safer from maniacal acts of the mentally deranged, including the types of mass shootings in the United States in recent years. Some thoughtful restrictions, waiting periods and background checks certainly can be constructive, including qualifications as well as to whom should be allowed to purchase and own semi-automatic and pump action shotguns or what amounts to an assault weapon, more suited for military operations. Yet, I simply do not believe that better, tighter or stricter gun control laws or banning ‘killer weapons’ entirely will magically make us all safer. Instead, I think at best they will make us marginally safer in certain instances. And in others, it might make us more vulnerable, akin to sitting prey to criminals who will always be able to find a way to obtain guns and powerful assault weapons in an underground black market.

Instead we should strive to create the kind of civility, respect and equity in society that would lead to fewer people losing their cookies and engaging in these random acts of lunacy. And where that is not possible, greater manned security may be required. And even then that may not be enough. It will not be easy. It may even be a never ending project for an advanced society or one that hopes to evolve beyond the madness to fortify itself to strike the right balance between societal safety, individual rights, security and privacy. I wish it were so easy to make the rest of us safe from the random break downs in civility and the deranged souls, minds and spirits of men who become undone, but it is far more complicated. It is just as important in these times that thoughtful people not allow society to reach for simple answers to complex problems. We must respect human life and dignity. Any time even one child is taken from a parent, it is a horrible loss and deeply saddening. And that loss deserves thoughtful introspection and solutions crafted by serious people; not band-aids that only leave us unprepared at risk for more of the same in the future. Consider the viewpoint of one commentator who says that ‘It’s Time to Hate Mass Murder and the “Liberal” and “Conservative” Idiots Who Help It Happen’:

We now have the perfect formula for horror: cut mental health funding, cut education in the arts and everything else that builds empathy and the human spirit, worship a military industrial imperial “culture” of violence sold as “defense,” desensitize our young men with violent porn, abandon all gun regulation, accept irony and cynicism as entertainment and “higher education” and then teach unstable young men to shoot and to glorify violence all round.

The Newtown Massacre ought to get us to finally commit affirmatively and deeply to our own evolution as a people, not to protect one political viewpoint or another. Our survival and the advancement of our society requires an affirmation that we need not just a new beginning but also the recognition and acceptance that it shall be a never ending process. We must, however, never give up on striving towards achieving a more rewarding and secure way of life for all of our citizens, even the downtrodden and mentally ill. In the end, happy, loving, secure and completely sane people do not kill other people, regardless of whether they own guns.